1. Field of the invention
The present invention relates to animal feeders and more particularly to animal feeders having a feed flow controlled by agitation and feed gates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is quite desirable to have an animal feeder that automatically controls the flow of feed to the animal while it is eating. One such prior art feeder is described in the Doty patent, U.S. Pat. No. 3,951,107. This patent shows an agitator operated by the animal while it is feeding. The animal with its head in the feeding trough, abuts the swingable front partition with its head and brushes against a divider bar that extends into the feed hopper, loosening feed so that it drops into the feed trough. This type of agitator, however, has a number of problems. First, it relies upon the animal's side-to-side movement against the divider bar to ensure a constant flow of feed. Secondly, the divider bar pivots through a hole in the swingable partition which swings back and forth from the feeding trough. Thus, in the event of a very hungry animal, the swingable partition may be pushed all the way back against the upper portion of the divider bar and both members will have little effect in agitating the feed. If no feed flows, the animal will just push harder and harder against the partition, and defeat the agitating function of the front partition and divider bar.
The present invention provides a solution to this problem. First, it has an agitator that is activated by the animal through his act of feeding. The agitator is close to the bottom of the feeding trough so as to ensure that the animal will first eat what is in its trough, then activate the agitator to induce more feed to flow into the trough. Second, the agitator also has an upper portion that extends into the feed hopper and is always fixedly spaced from the feed hopper walls in order to ensure maximum efficiency in agitation.